In vitro bioassays are promising tools for the assessment of drinking water quality. The technique is based on living cells that show a response once exposed to toxicants. Bioassays are already used in pharmaceutical screening, food safety assessment and chemical regulation but have not entered water regulation yet. Researchers of DEMEAU evaluated the (international) regulatory acceptance of mammalian or bacterial cell-based bioassays for human health assessment.

Different types of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) schemes are widely distributed and applied on various scales in the European countries, but no systematic categorization and data compilation existed up to now. The created European MAR catalogue (MS-Access database) includes a wide range of parameters, e.g. operational information, hydrogeological properties and water quality monitoring for different types of MAR. The database includes currently 270 MAR sites from more than 20 European countries.

DEMEAU partners attended a workshop on methods of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for all EU-FP7 projects in Leoben (AT). LCA experts of 12 research projects exchanged ideas on LCA related topics and defined a common framework for environmental indicators to facilitate the comparability and reliability of outcomes of the environmental assessment.

As the first full scale facility of its type, an ozonation plant is being implemented in Switzerland. The WWTP Neugut in Dübendorf cleans the wastewater from Dübendorf, Dietlikon, Wangen-Brüttisellen, and Wallisellen. The Neugut plant will be the first full scale ozonation facility at a municipal WWTP in Switzerland. The launch is expected for early 2014. The Neugut plant is a tailor-made application developed in cooperation with Eawag and the surrounding municipalities to protect the water quality of the nearby river and wells.